The career of stage and television star Florence Henderson will be reviewed in an "Inside the Actor's Studio"-style evening Saturday, May 4 at the Edgerton Center on the campus of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. less

The career of stage and television star Florence Henderson will be reviewed in an "Inside the Actor's Studio"-style evening Saturday, May 4 at the Edgerton Center on the campus of Sacred Heart University in ... more

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Florence Henderson conquered Broadway before TV

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Florence Henderson was a Broadway star at the age of 20 and was chosen by composer Richard Rodgers to tour in "Oklahoma!" while she was still in her teens, but a mid-career TV detour would put those accomplishments in the shade.

Although "The Brady Bunch" was never in the top 10 when it originally aired from 1969 to 1974, it has enjoyed one of the longest afterlives of any pop-culture creation of the past six decades.

"You can't kill it with a stick," Henderson said, laughing, in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. "It has never been off the air in this country, and it's syndicated in 127 countries."

The actress thinks the show has retained its hold on us because its message of "love and caring and kindness and forgiveness" has never really gone out of style.

We might be living in an age of irony and snark now, but there is still a deep longing for the warmth and stability of the Bradys.

As proud as she is to have been a part of an iconic TV show, Henderson is looking forward to talking about the many other aspects of her enduring career at Sacred Heart University's Edgerton Center in Fairfield on Saturday, May 4, where she will do a public interview and also answer audience questions.

Henderson spent the first decade of her professional life on the stage, where she starred in the original production of "Fanny" and was handpicked by Rodgers for the first major New York revival of "South Pacific" in 1967.

Fortunately, Henderson's work on those shows (and several others) was preserved on original cast recordings that still delight Broadway fans. (You won't hear a stronger version of "A Wonderful Guy" than the one she belts out on the "South Pacific" CD.)

"I did think that would be my career," the performer said of the success she found so quickly on Broadway. "I loved living in New York and I never thought I would live in L.A."

Henderson is still thrilled by the fact that she got to work with such theater titans as Rodgers and his partner, Oscar Hammerstein. The performer was also chosen by Noel Coward to star in his final Broadway musical, "The Girl Who Came to Supper."

"Oh, and Ezio Pinza; how about that?" she said of getting to work with the great Italian singer and actor in "Fanny."

"I learned so much from all of them," she said, adding the name of director Joshua Logan to the list of Broadway legends who guided her through shows during the 1950s and '60s.

It all began for Henderson at an open-call audition for "Oklahoma!," which landed her the lead in the last national touring company of the original Rodgers and Hammerstein production.

Rodgers would go on to cast her in the "South Pacific" revival, "The Sound of Music" and a major new production of "The King and I" at the Los Angeles Music Center.

"Those shows are still absolutely amazing to me. The material was just so strong -- the music, the libretto. I was so privileged to be a part of that," she said.

All of those years spent doing eight shows a week stood Henderson in good stead when she was asked to participate in ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" two years ago.

"The whole thing reminded me of working on Broadway. Rehearsing and then all of a sudden it's show time and you just gotta get up there and do it," she said.

Henderson was part of the now-vanished "show must go on" mentality of Broadway in the Golden Age, when stars, featured players and chorus members performed no matter how they were feeling.

"The whole time I was in `Fanny' I never missed a performance," she said of the show's two-year run. "I had bronchitis, a broken rib, broken toes. You only stayed out if you literally could not talk."

Henderson loved working on the stage so much that she continued to do summer tours in Broadway classics even while she was starring in "The Brady Bunch."

Sadly, her breaks in TV production were never long enough for her to come back to New York for a new show.

Henderson clearly enjoys talking about her many accomplishments, but resists the lure of nostalgia.

"I'm always looking forward to the next challenge," she stressed. "I say `Yes' a lot. That's why I still work so much."